Whale skull (Parietobalaena palmeri)
Remington Kellogg (1892-1969) was assistant secretary of the Smithsonian and director and curator of the U.S. National Museum. His research interest was fossil marine mammals and he began working as an assistant curator at the U.S. National Museum in 1928. In 1948, he became director of the U.S. National Museum and in 1958 he was appointed assistant secretary of the Smithsonian. Kellogg retired in 1962. At that time, he moved into the newly built Division of Vertebrate Paleontology in the east wing of NMNH and worked there until his death.

The artist, Sydney Prentice, - a master of pen and ink line work - prepared most of Kellogg's illustrations. Prentice (1873-1943) was born in Washington, D.C., and moved to Lawrence, Kansas when he was seven years old, but the bulk of his career (forty years) was spent working for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sydney Prentice was a master in the use of a three-dimensional pantograph for making isometric drawings of skeletal material. At the time of his death, the Carnegie Museum issued this statement in its 1943 annual report: “The demise of Sydney Prentice on September 15 was a severe blow to this institution and a painful loss for his colleagues. He was respected and admired as an untiring worker in his professional field of scientific illustration, especially in the subjects of paleontology and osteology, in which he had gained a reputation unsurpassed by anyone in this country. He will be greatly missed but affectionately remembered by all his friends who cherish the memory of his geniality, his wide range of cultural interests, and his readiness to be of every assistance.”